5 Helpful Tips for Your New Healthcare Start-up

You’ve decided on healthcare as the perfect industry to enter which will satisfy both your entrepreneurial spirit and your desire to help people in need out of genuine compassion.

Now what? How do you get your new healthcare startup up and running fast and without a glitch?

Here are 5 tips that can help you do just that:

1. Rely on PEOs to Lighten Your Load

Healthcare organizations, like all other profit and non-profit organizations, require a host of HR systems in place to function optimally. Payroll duties, insurance coverage, and other employee benefits take a lot of time, resources, and energy out of your staff. And paying a large, full-time HR department might be cost-prohibitive for new start-ups.

What’s the solution? Hire a PEO (professional employer organization) to handle the HR end for you so you can focus on healthcare. PEOS are used often to manage employee benefits so that you don’t have to. Finding the best health insurance and other benefits to attract top talent isn’t easy; PEOs excel at it because that’s all they do day in and day out.

2. Consider Franchising Opportunities

If you’ve not already firmly decided on a new independent startup, there’s still time to consider franchising. Getting into the healthcare industry can be quite complex, and with the legal and medical issues involved, you can’t afford to make any mistakes.

A franchise will streamline the whole process and speed up your ability to open your doors and quickly tap into an existing client base. Name recognition is what you buy with a franchise (that and a proven business model), and name recognition means reputation, which can go a long way.

3. Tackle Accounting From Day One

At first, you may not be able to afford more than some basic accounting software and a computer lab. But as soon as possible, invest in a CPA who can keep your organization tax-compliant and on-budget. Remember that revenue isn’t everything: cash flow is just as important. And cash flow requires careful attention to the timing, type, and size of transactions. An accountant on staff or outsourced accounting services will likely save you money in the long run.

4. Invest in Recruiting and Training

Your staff is the face and the legs of your organization. You can’t do anything without them, and they will decide what clients think of your agency as much as or more than you will. There is a very high employee turnover rate in the healthcare industry, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Use employee benefits and competitive pay to interest experienced nurses and other clinical staff. Be known for stringent standards during recruiting, continual training and improvement, and fair compensation. Do that, and you can capture and retain a staff that will serve patients like no other and make you stand out in a crowded industry.

5. Consider Outsourcing All Medical Coding

Finally, realize that ICD-10 is far more detailed than its predecessor (ICD-9) and that ICD-11, which will be even more complex, is right around the corner. It takes a lot of time, resources, and effort to stay on top of ICD-10 changes and to ensure your coders are getting you the biggest possible reimbursements.

In most cases, it is more cost-effective to rely on an outsourcing partner for all medical coding than to do it in-house. And this is especially true with smaller startups that need to focus on client care and not get distracted by coding duties.